A data grid is a data management system that includes multiple nodes in communication with one another via a network (e.g., the Internet) for collectively managing and processing information. Examples of a node can include a computing device, a server, a virtual machine, or any combination of these. Because data grids can include a large number of geographically distributed nodes working together, data grids can experience a wide variety of problems that affect the performance of the data grid as a whole. Some of these problems are faults. One example of a fault can be the failure of a node's hard drive, which may cause the node to shut down or otherwise be unable to access data stored on the hard drive. A data grid can include safety features that provide a “fault tolerance” so that the data grid can continue to operate in the event of a fault, which can provide more reliable service than data grids that are not fault tolerant.
One technique for providing fault tolerance in a data grid is replication. Replication includes creating and storing multiple copies (“replica”) of data on different nodes in a data grid. This can help ensure that if one of the nodes storing the data experiences a fault, a copy of the data is still accessible by the data grid via another node, enabling the data grid to continue to operate.